Note: At the close of the debate, Debaters must submit to me a summary of their debate points.

1.To begin the debate, speakers should one by one,
beginning with the “yes” side speakers introduce themselves, state the issue of
the debate and state which side “Yes” or “No” he/se is debating on .

2.The “yes” side speakers will go first.Then the “no” side speakers will each present
their case.

3.Before starting to prepare for your debate, make
sure you clearly understand the question and what exactly you will be arguing
for.If you have any doubt about what
the question is or what it means, consult the lectures, a textbook on business
ethics, or me.Don’t look in a regular
dictionary for the meanings of the words used to state the question.Philosophers use ordinary words in less than
ordinary ways.

4.Presenting your side of the case consists in
giving 2-3 examples that support your position and also requires making clear
just what moral principles (such as the Principle of Utility, Rawl’s two
principles of Justice, the Kantian principle of Respect for Persons, etc.) your reasons are based on.

For example, if you are arguing on the “yes” side that employers should
give reasons for firing an employee, you might give the following as a
reason.People are not just tools that
you can throw out when you no longer need them or when they aren’t functioning
up to par.People deserve respect.So you should try to explain why they are
being fired.For example, in the case of
firing a plumber, you might explain that the skill level required for the job
is lacking on his part.To support this,
an employer might go on to cite several cases where the employee lacked the necessary
skill level.

By contrast, if you are arguing on the “No” side of this same issue, you
might give as a reason why employers ought not to give reasons for firing the
fact that an employee will often disagree with the employer’s reasons and such disagreements
take up time and do not always succeed in convincing the employee of the
legitimacy of the employer’s reason for terminating the employee.Then go on to give an example of this type of
situation.

5.In giving a reason it is crucial to bear in mind
the following points:

a.Even if you disagree with the idea that you are
being asked to argue for, your goal is understanding that
idea and properly representing the reasons a person who does agree with the
idea has for agreeing with it. So don’t worry about being on the “wrong side”
of the debate.The debate topics are formulated so that
each side has sufficient amount of arguments to support it.If you feel that the position you have to
support is extremely weak, you definitely need to do more research and reread
the class notes.

b.Your
grade in the debate is not based on
beating the opposing side.It is based
entirely on how clear you represent your side of the debate and how well you
can support the idea that you are arguing for.

c.I can help you with reasons for whatever side
that you are arguing for.

d.If you do not connect your examples to a moral
principle when you give your reasons, then the examples will not count towards
your grade on the debate.

e.Note finally, that the grading rubric for
debaters has two components:(1) how
well team members coordinated their efforts and planned the debate; and (2) how
well each member of a team presented
and explained in his 2-3 examples how these examples support their side of the
debate and how they relate to at least one moral principle.

6.Each
debater will be graded on whether he/she:

A: Gave one clear reason for
his/her position

B: Spoke within time limit

C: Showed knowledge of topic ,
including how the reason relates to a moral principle)